Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Actor
and humanitarian Nate Parker first received critical attention for his starring
role in The Great Debaters opposite Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker.
Denzel handpicked him to play the troubled yet brilliant Henry Lowe who
overcomes his selfish ways to become the team’s leader. Nate received an
honorary Doctorate from Wiley College in Marshall,
Texas, the school on which The
Great Debaters was based.

More
recently, he appeared in the action thriller Non-Stop, opposite Liam Neeson and
Julianne Moore. Last year, he starred in Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, opposite
Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, and Ben Foster.

In 2012,
he was the toast of the Sundance Film Festival when he appeared in Arbitrage
opposite Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Tim Roth. That year, he also starred
as the lead in Red Tails, supported by Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding, Jr. It
told the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first African-American
military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps and were some of the finest pilots
in World War II. George Lucas funded, produced and co-directed this feature.

Earlier
in his career, Nate starred opposite Alicia Keys in The Secret Life of Bees,
which featured an all-star cast of Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Dakota
Fanning and Paul Bettany. Additionally, he’s been seen in Pride alongside
Terrence Howard, in Dirty opposite Cuba Gooding Jr., in Felon with Stephen
Dorff and Sam Shepard, and in Tunnel Rats with Michael Pare. And onstage, Nate
appeared opposite Dustin Hoffman, Annette Bening, Rosario Dawson and James
Cromwell in “American Voices” at the Broad Street Theater.

A Norfolk, VA native, Nate
studied computer programming and trained his way to become an All-American
wrestler at the University
of Oklahoma. He mentors
twenty-four children from schools in central Los Angeles and spearheads projects and
events with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He sponsors a Peace for Kids
scholarship fund and works in their afterschool program.

Here,
Nate talks about his new movie, Beyond the Lights, while waxing romantic about
his career and his life philosophy.

Kam
Williams: Hi Nate, thanks so much for another
interview.

Nate Parker:
My pleasure, brother.

KW:
I really enjoyed Beyond the Lights. What interested you in the project?

NP:
Before anything else, it was Gina. I think she’s one of the
best directors on planet Earth. And her vision, and her work ethic, and
attention to details are so inspiring that when a project comes up that she’s a
part of, you want to be a part of it.

KW:
She certainly devoted herself to developing and fleshing out
her characters in this picture.

NP:
Well, she had the time. You know what they say: “Cheap, fast
and good. You can only have two.” This is a woman who takes her time. Four years
for this project, four years for the last one. She’s been in the driver’s seat
for so long, and been so passionate about it, and she’s never taken no for an
answer. And it shows in the work. Not only did she write the perfect script,
but she was so intentional about her vision coming across, that it made it easy
for me to do my job.

KW:
But you bring a lot to the table, too. I’ve seen you do
reliably great work in picture after picture.

NP:
Thanks, Kam. You and I will probably be on the phone a lot
in the coming years, and you’ll always hear me say the same thing: I attribute
everything that I’ve attained to my leadership. I am nothing without my
director. I really believe that. I can prepare a character, and put myself in a
position to deliver truthful nuance and put on the skin, but it’s the
director’s job to usher me into a place that achieves the vision in way that’s
understated and believable.

KW:
What message do you think people will take away from the
film?

NP:
I think the first is that the language of love transcends
all obstacles. I think the second is that in order to love someone else you
first have to know yourself, and be comfortable in your own skin.

KW:
The Melissa Harris-Perry question:How
did your first big heartbreak impact who you are as a person?

NP:
Oh my goodness! That’s a good question. My first great
heartbreak was losing my father. I was 11, when I lost my dad. It changed me,
because I had to be the father for my family. My outlook on life changed
immediately, and it became all about service. And that’s how I approach my
craft, as if I’m a servant of the film. Losing my father was the biggest
transition that affected so much of my life.

KW:
The Harriet Pakula-Teweles question: With so many classic films being redone,
is there a remake you'd like to star in?

NP:
Funny you should ask. Yes, A Place in the Sun. It’s one of
the best films I’ve ever seen, and we’re developing a picture that’s very
similar to it, thematically.

KW:
The Viola Davis question: What’s the biggest difference between who you are at
home as opposed to the person we see on the red carpet?

NP:
I do my very best to be the same person. I always say I’m an
“actor-vist.” All I do, I do for my people. I make no apologies for that, and I
try to live my life as an example for young black men navigating the life
space. I want to leave a legacy behind that, when you reflect about me, you’ll
think, “Okay, there was a sacrifice made on behalf of people who looked like
him.

KW:
What do you think about the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri?

NP:
I went to Ferguson.
I think the problem is deeper than police brutality. I believe there’s an
overall dehumanization and hyper-criminalization of black youth that affects
everyone. It wasn’t a cop who killed Treyvon Martin. So, Ferguson was not an isolated incident, but
emblematic of an epidemic that’s been around for over 400 years. The injuries
and conditioning caused by slavery continue to live within us today. We’re
constantly told that the value of a black life is less. There’s a certain level
of white supremacy and black inferiority that’s entrenched in our society. Once
you become desensitized to that truth, you fall right into the trap. And until
we have an honest confrontation of those evils, we cannot heal as a country,
and a Ferguson
is going to continue to happen every other week. That’s why it’s so important
that you, as a journalist, and that I, as an artist, pursue justice, and make
it a strong thread of who we are as individuals.

KW:
That makes me think of that famous saying by Faulkner, “The
past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past,” and how Sugar Ray Leonard told me the
toughest fight he ever had wasn’t Marvin Hagler, tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran on
Wilfred Benitez, but his fight against a lesser opponent in Boston because of
all the racism he encountered from the moment he stepped of the plane right
through the fight. He said the relentless, palpable hatred sapped his spirit. I
was stunned by that totally unexpected answer.

NP:
That’s interesting. I can help but mention the irony of
listening to you relate that story as I sit here looking out a window watching
a huge American flag waving in the breeze. We are a great country, but we are
sick, and we need to be made well. And America has a long way to go.

KW:
When you mention the American flag and irony, that reminds
me of an what happened to a good friend of mine, Ted Landsmark, a fellow
lawyer, when we were both in Boston
back in the Seventies. He had his nose broken by an American flag when a bunch
of racists attacked him right in front of City Hall. The photographer who
happened to capture it won a Pulitzer Prize for the photograph.

NP:
Oh my goodness! I never heard about this incident. I’m
googling it right now… I’m looking at it right now. How ironic! That’s
incredible! This has been the plight of the black man in the U.S. Crushed by
the very instrument that’s supposed to symbolize freedom.

KW:
Are you thinking about entering politics in real-life someday, like your
character, Kaz?

NP:
No, not at all. Anything that’s been done for our people in
the past, was done outside the realm of politics. Our greatest inroads were
achieved with the help of leaders who were among the people. That’s not an
indictment of politicians, it’s just that things don’t change quickly when you
work within the political structure.

True revolution transpires on a grassroots level where
change can occur very quickly.

NP:
I would invite Paul Robeson, and I would serve a vegetarian
meal, something that’s healthy for us both.

KW:
Have you ever had a near-death experience?

NP:
No one’s ever asked me that before. Yes, in summer camp when
I was in the 7th grade and had asthma desperately bad. I was
kayaking for the first time when it rolled over and I didn’t know how to roll
the boat back upright. I was zipped in and couldn’t get out. Fortunately, a
friend, Isaac Paddock, swam over and saved me. I literally had an asthma attack
while I was drowning. I don’t know how I survived it, except with Isaac’s help
and the grace of God. If Isaac hadn’t pulled me out, I wouldn’t be here right
now.

KW:
Have you ever accidentally uncovered a deep secret?

NP:
Sure, every family has its dysfunction, but I wouldn’t want
to talk about it.

KW:
The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book
you read?

NP:
“On Film-making,” by Alexander Mackendrick, because I’m
about to direct a film in December called The Birth of a Nation. It’s a biopic
about Nat Turner. Revolution is in the air.

KW:
Where did you interest in Nat Turner come from?

NP:
It’s pretty much all I care about nowadays. I grew up in Norfolk and Chesapeake,
Virginia. Nat grew up about 40
miles away, in Southampton
County. And of course, he
led the most successful slave revolt in American history. I’m very much
interested in aggressively pursuing justice for all people, especially during
times of moral crisis. I’m less worried about my brand than about alleviating
the plight of oppressed people. So, I speak my mind, particularly about
injustices in my community, even though that can sometimes get you in trouble.

KW:
Keep up the good work, Nate, and best of luck with Beyond
the Lights.

No comments:

Subscribe via email

Subscribe via RSS

The Sly Fox Film Reviews

KamWilliams.com

The Sly Fox Film Reviews publishes the content of film critic Kam Williams. Voted Most Outstanding Journalist of the Decade by the Disilgold Soul Literary Review in 2008, Kam Williams is a syndicated film and book critic who writes for 100+ publications around the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa, Canada and the Caribbean. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Online, the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee and Rotten Tomatoes.

In addition to a BA in Black Studies from Cornell, he has an MA in English from Brown, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a JD from Boston University. Kam lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife and son.